The drums were blaring hard when a group of women were thumping their feet in rhythm to the beats of Dhimsa, holding each other and celebrating a new lease of life.
From a nondescript village that was suffered heavy damage due to very severe cyclonic storm Hudhud in 2014, Pedda Bidda, Anantagiri mandal now stands out as a model hamlet where a total of 83 houses have been rebuilt with toilets attached bathrooms.
Taken up jointly by HSBC and Habitat for Humanity India at a cost of Rs. 3.5 crore, the year-long project comes as a complete package for over 380 tribal people with a biomass cook stove, a solar lantern, a recharge pit to store rainwater and a twin pit pour flush toilet.
After inaugurating the houses spread over three plots, a 10,000 litre water tank and an 800 sq ft community hall on Thursday, Global Head of Operations-Global Service Centres, HSBC Subir Mehra said: “When I visited the village a year ago, it was disheartening to see how the cyclone had thrown normal life completely out of gear. Today, the entire hamlet paints a different picture as the new homes have transformed the contours of the rural setting.”
Ultimately, empowering them
Terming the rehabilitation project as one of the corporate social responsibility initiatives, Centre Director of HSBC Electronic Data Processing India Satish Chander said: “Though the venture is funded by HSBC, our focus is not just on rebuilding houses but going beyond that to empower the communities.”
There were 85 houses in the hamlet out of which 83 were damaged on October 12, 2014. “A great amount of survey has gone into the disaster management project as it impacted 400 people. Besides designing the structures, the aim is to educate people on the health impact of open defecation, disaster risk reduction strategies, sanitation, health and hygiene through our behaviour change communication programme,” adds Sanjay Daswani, senior director of Resource Development and Communications, Habitat for Humanity India.
With the assistance of Association of Relief Volunteers who tried to drum up the construction process by loading trucks of material to the site that barely had any proper access road, the project brought smiles on the faces of villagers.
